Site-Specific Public Art Course Lessons

Course of Site Specific Public Art
Lesson #1

FOUNDATION: PUBLIC ART AS AN OPEN FIELD ?

Politecnico di Milano (Campus di Piacenza) School of Architecture and Society

Lesson #1

PRESENTATION OF THE COURSE

Overview on the variety and complexity of Public Art

Origins: from the experience of Sixties in USA and Europe, through New Genre
Public Art, Relational Aesthetics to the no borders terrain between art and civic
engagement

From site specific to public sphere. Emerging experiences in community-oriented
art practices, participatory cultures, challenging use of media


Lesson #1


Focusing in detail on case-histories we will dialogue on specific topics such as:

- the functions of public art: from urban revitalization to representing communities,
from memorials to new sites of experimentation and narration;
-- new visions of public art: from urban pedagogy to a visualization of civic paths
-new form of communication: social media and internet based practices, user-
generated content and participation;
-- identifying “the public”: audience, collaboration, communities and bottom-up
movements;
-- temporality, ephemeral and relational aesthetics;
-- artists vs cultural workers; art work vs cultural production: comparisons and
differences
-New relationships with the institutions: the role of artistic events, biennial
exhibitions and museums;
-- non-conventional places for public art: re-sign the territory


Lesson #1


Goals and objectives:

-Provide an overview of themes and issues concerning the course through
readings, lectures, and case-history studies;

Acquire skills in research, criticism, and proposal of a paper about a theme within
the course;

Apply learned skills to develop, produce and present a proposal of a public art
project as creator or curator;

The course will include guest speakers.


Lesson #1


# 1 GUEST SPEAKER
Elisa Giardina Papa and Andrea Masu
artists from RISD (Rhode Island School of Design).

Research group at MFA RISD ::Re-framing the real

They analyze works by artists motivated from a strong cultural, political and social
sense of urgency to build new relationship between history and future. They invent
new dramaturgies of the sensible, their works and actions are set in the public
sphere in that area that extends from the street to the media and up to the
internet.


Lesson #1

Research group at MFA RISD ::Re-framing the real

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Lesson #1
# 2 GUEST SPEAKER
Alterazioni Video- Incompiuto Siciliano::Unfinished Sicily

Installations and actions on the theme of détournement and public art.

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Lesson #1
Alterazioni Video- Incompiuto Siciliano::Unfinished Sicily

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Lesson #1
Studio Azzurro: well known italian video-artist group

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Lesson #1


Class Assignments:
Mid-term paper:
You will be responsible for presenting one paper to the class. This will be a 5 page
research paper focusing on one artist or artist group related to a topic covered in
class by half-term. Since it is a research paper, you must include
footnote/endnotes and a list of work cited. This paper could be researched using
the bibliography as well as on line materials.
The paper should be submitted in mid-term class period.

Final project and paper:
Final project should include a planning, a presentation, drawings and other media
work of your idea concerning the (i.e. video, photo, internet work).
It will be realized according to the courses of Landscape design studio and
Analysis of temporary inhabitants in public spaces. For the final you will be
expected to complete one project or a 10-page reasearch paper that adresses
one of the issues raised in this course. I will provide a list of topics.

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Lesson #1


Bibliography and readings :

-Suzanne Lacy, Mapping the terrain: new genre public art, Bay Press, 1995

-Nicolas Bourriaud, Relational Aesthetics, Les Presse Du Reel, 1998

- Living as Form, socially engaged art from 1991- 2011, edited by Nato Thompson,
Creative Times Book, New York, The MIT Press, Cambridge 2011

-


Lesson #1

Suzanne Lacy, Mapping the terrain: new genre Nicolas Bourriaud, Relational Aesthetics, Les
public art, Bay Press, 1995 Presse Du Reel, 1998



Living as Form, socially engaged art from
Lesson #1
1991- 2011, edited by Nato Thompson,
Creative Times Book, New York, The MIT
Press, Cambridge 2011


Lesson #1


Instructions to follow the course:

-blog art-as-playground.blogspot.com

Facebook group: publicartpiacenza

#publicartpiacenza

I send you a reading in pdf format.
This is my adress: ornellacostanzopolipc@gmail.com


Lesson #1
WHAT IS PUBLIC ART?

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Alexander Calder 1967, La Grande Vitesse in Grand Rapids,
Michigan

WHAT IS PUBLIC ART? Starting from the 70's commissioners of public art, still active Lesson #1
both in the U.S.A. and Europe, have brought several work of art in public spaces of
cities of different sizes.

-
Claes Oldenburg: "Free" Stamp Cleveland Claes Oldenburg, Needle, thread and Knot,
City Hall, 1985 Milan 2000


WHAT IS PUBLIC ART? Other interventions in nature. Lesson #1

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Niki De Saint Phalle, Tarots Park in Capalbio Jean Tinguely, Heureka, Zurich, 1964 (river
(Tuscany) 1976-1999 delta)


WHAT IS PUBLIC ART? Relationship with the memory of an historical event, a person, Lesson #1
a tragedy ecc.

1924-1925 Mount Rushmore Eisenmann Memorial to the Holocaust
(1990's-2005)


WHAT IS PUBLIC ART? Relationship with the memory of an historical event, a person, Lesson #1
a tragedy ecc.

Alberto Burri, Cretto, Gibellina-Sicily (after the Earthquake of ‘68) 1973


WHAT IS PUBLIC ART ? Land art, Minimal art, Conceptual art, Fluxus, performances Lesson #1
have contributed to the debate, to shift the focus onto an open work, interactive,
context-responsive of physical and perceptive environment.
Robert Morris: Observatory (Netherlands) 1971-77 (LAND ART)


Robert Smithson: Spiral Jetty 1970 (LAND ART)


Walter De Maria, Lightning Field 1977 (LAND ART)


Daniel Buren, Le deux Plateaux (The two levels), Paris 1986 (MINIMAL ART)


Joseph Beuys, 7000 Oaks, Kassel, 1982


Allan Kaprow, 18 happenings in 6 parts 1959 (FLUXUS/HAPPENING)


WHAT IS PUBLIC ART ? THE CONCEPT OF PUBLIC Lesson #1
Public is the core of the artistic intervention.
An art to engage the audience with, a real-
world addressed art, the aim of a social
change.


WHAT IS PUBLIC ART ? THE CONCEPT OF PUBLIC Lesson #1

Superflex, Guarana Power, Venice Biennial 2003


WHAT IS PUBLIC ART ? THE MEANING OF SITE SPECIFIC Lesson #1

In early 1900: first studio and then expanded into the “real world”



From the 70's site specific concerns the presence of the public, a dialogue with
him, without which the artist and the art do not exist.

Dan Graham, Public Space Two Audiences, 1976



From the 90’s: social function of art. Artists do use it as work on field to solve social
conflicts. This attitude requires a political sight and action.

Rirkrit Tiravanija, The Land project, 1998


WHAT IS PUBLIC ART ? THE COMMISSIONERS Lesson #1
From a public commissioner to a spontaneous intervention, increasingly often, in spite of
the institutional dynamics themselves.

• Public fund
• Mixed commissioners: half public-half
private
• Percent for law (USA)
• England (government investment)
• France (commande publique) 1% of
budget of public buildings for art
• The works funded belong to the public
subject


WHAT IS PUBLIC ART ? THE COMMISSIONERS: the private initiative Lesson #1

The example of Creative Time in the U.S.A. from the 70’s. Art in unknown and unusual
places.



The example of Creative Time the in U.S.A. from the 70’s. Art in unknown and unusual
places.

Message to the
Public, John
Lennon and Yoko
Ono, Times
Square



The example of Creative Time in the U.S.A. from the 70’s. Art in unknown and unusual
places.

Message to the
Public,Jenny
Holzer, Times
Square


Case histories in Italy. The initiative of the periphery: Spoleto (Umbria, Como (Lombardia).
Volterra 73 (Tuscany).
Self-management, participation and democratic processes on the wave of ‘68.

Calder (comm.
Municipality) B. Munari, Como ,
Campo Urbano.
Comm: curators
and artists.



Staccioli (comm.
Municipality,
curators, artists,
artisans.


WHAT IS PUBLIC ART ? TODAY. THE SELF-COMMISSION: PARTICIPATION AND Lesson #1
PROPOSALS

Spacehive, Neighborland, Ioby (In your back yard), Brickstarter


FOUNDATION: LAND ART Lesson #1

MAIN CHARACTERISTICS:

• close relationship between work and • They're a not a drop sculpture, it's not an
site-specific autonomous work which does not
• the context where the work is created change in relation to the space and
time conditions.
• the perception of the work is strictly
related to the circumstances within the • From the audience point of view is very
work is seen important the position he covers to
observe it.
• the artist creates works which are
conditioned by the place itself and by • The dimension: large scale project, huge
using the materials he has at his own and imposing.
disposal. So the works are physically
inseparable from the site.


Richard Long, Delabole slate circle


Richard Long, River Avon Driftwood (1976)


Richard Long, Walking a line in the grass (1967) and Walking a line in Ireland


Richard Long, Walking a line in Nepal and walking a circle in Maharahstra


Richard Long, Avon Mud circle series


Site-Specific Public Art Course Lessons

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